I bought the 390 since i dreamt of one since the 90s.. Having grown out of my recent Nakamichi phase i got a few yamahas. A 330, 380 and 390. Looks like the only differences between the 380 and 390 is the stabilization cassette door. Cosmetically the same.. Specs look the same. The playtrim is a life saver when it comes to playing tapes that may sound off. Auto calibration is a genius move.. You dont have to pay nakamichi prices to get calibration features. Goes a long way. Its a single-well 1 direction play deck.. And i dont mind having to flip the tape over.. Autoreverse would be a weakness as the flipping heads would eventually go out of alignment.

Clunky Transport... The cassette well is not lit.. Gotta stare at it to find out how much tape you have left. No output level control.

Bought this used as cassettes make a mini-comeback and I found a crate full of tapes in the garage. Nice deck, good tapes sound good if you don't overdo the levels. Mine has no problem with the tape tuning, it continues through both sides of a tape, and has no problem determining what type of tape is in the deck, though I've only used type ll and type lV/metal.

Nothing significant. When you set "tape tuning" the tape doesn't return to exactly the place it was wound to when you started. I pop it out and move it very slightly to the start of the live tape. Not a big deal and may be my machine only.

Obviously the price I paid for it. good recordings, simple aesthetics, build quality.

lack of autoreverse for those of you too lazy to flip a tape.

I bought this deck when first assembing my own system at 16 years old or so (about 3-4 years ago). I bought it and a Pioneer SX-838 reciever for a combined total of $30. The tape deck does everything I want it to do, including make good tapes that I used in my truck. It doesn't have auto reverse, but that really isn't that big of a deal. I've not had any problems with the tape formulation sensors, then again I've only doubled altitude as opposed to humidity. But the deck has worked regardless of conditions for me, and it was a great $10 for me.

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Old Sony tape deck I borrowed from my dad before I got my own.

High quality recordings, precise pause/record features.

No auto-reverse, Doesnt wash dishes.

This tape deck serves its purpose well. ipurchased it to make cassettes for the car as well, and it does an excellent job. Great sound reproduction, simple to use.

Similar Products Used:

Luxman, Nakamichi

Auto Bias Tuning, Display, No auto-reverse, playback bias adjustment.

No real time counter, No auto-reverse

Unit makes excellent quality cassettes. I purchased this unit to make cassettes for use in the car environment, and this does the trick. It has no auto-reverse but I purchased this unit for that reason. It has a fixed record/playback head so recordings are more accurate compared to auto-reverse units which can move more over time compared to the fixed heads. Unit also has a playback bias adjustment so you can adjust the bias to match the recording deck which the cassette was made. Overall, I am pleased with this unit.

Similar Products Used:

Teac, Onkyo, Kenwood, Nakamichi, Sony, Denon

Good Sound Quality

Unreliable automatic tape formulation sensors

The yamaha is a good unit with good features and ease of use. The problem I experience and have never been able to have fixed correctly is the auto tape formulation sensors. These things are sensitive to vibration, temperature and humidity. For instance, when using a normal tape, the machine often thinks there's no tape in the machine! Even if its in the middle of recording, sometimes it just stops.

Ir seems fine with chrome cassettes, but won't even register metal tapes at all - it thinks they're chrome.

Also I noticed the auto tape bias looses its settings when you take the cassette out of the machine to tape on the other side.

This is a good product that is badly let down by a very annoying, and apparently impossible to fix fault.

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Sony, Sharp